Lothian Disability Sport swimming gala a great success in Mercat Gate
Lothian Disability Sport (LDS) hosted a swimming gala for club swimmers with a disability at The Mercat Gait Centre, Prestonpans on Saturday 29th September 2012. This event is one of two galas offered every year which are an integral part of the swimming competition calendar in the East of Scotland. Competitors range from first timers to elite athletes with all swimmers welcome to attend. The gala acts as a qualifier for the Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) National Junior and Senior Championships run throughout the year, giving athletes the opportunity to compete on a national stage.
The LDS galas have been the stepping stone for countless great athletes over the years and many have progressed to Scottish and British programmes. At present, we have several swimmers that have developed through the pathway to the highest level. Jim Anderson OBE and Sean Fraser have been our leading swimmers and both have won medals at Paralympic level. More recently, 18 year old James Clegg emerged as one of the world’s leading swimmers with a visual impairment and the S12 swimmer, who currently trains with the East Lothian Swim Team, won an unexpected bronze medal in 100m butterfly at the London 2012 Paralympic Games. The only Scottish Paralympic swimmer to win a medal! In addition, Warrender Swimmer Scott Quin narrowly missed out on selection to London by 0.11 of a second. Ironically, Scott improved even further and at the ASA Championships in Sheffield he broke the British record twice and finished the season as the fastest 100m S14 breaststroker in the world. If he had swam those times a month earlier, he would have been in the GB team.
These athletes are real inspiration to all the young swimmers who aspire to develop along the pathway and it is an honour to see them still supporting their local LDS swimming event. Scott competed in all his favoured events, whilst Jim supported from the side-lines and presented the medals at the end.
Although the gala was a success, we only had 39 swimmers compete, which is a much reduced number compared to previous events. We can only hope that this was a blip and we will be working closely with clubs, schools, teachers and coaches in order to increase the numbers attending. Nevertheless, the atmosphere was excellent and friendly, with every athlete awarded a medal for their efforts. However, it can get competitive especially when team mates compete against each other – some nail biting finishes often occurring!
Lothian Disability Sport had the honour of presenting the Mark Headden Memorial Award for the fourth time to the ‘most improved swimmer of the year.’ Unfortunately, Mark’s parents couldn’t present the award this year however, school friend and fellow swimmer, Jim Anderson OBE did the honours.
This accolade went to 14 year old Lothian Waves swimmer, Lewis McDonald who has made an enormous improvement over the past year. His coach, Carol Douglas said
“Lewis first came to Lothian Waves as a cautious 5 year old and it took some persuading to get him into the pool! After a few weeks he settled in fine and under the guidance of Heather Lowden, Lewis started to enjoy coming along to Lothian Waves every Thursday afternoon. His commitment and patience paid off and once he learned to swim, there was no holding him back. He is now in Lothian Waves top squad, swimming all four strokes with good technique and gives 100% at his training sessions. Lewis has competed at Lothian Disability Swimming Galas for the past three years where his times are continually improving. He has also won medals at the National Junior Championships in Glasgow. He is a great role model for our younger swimmers - he never complains, he willingly accepts new challenges in the pool and we are honoured to have him in Lothian Waves.”
He was truly humbled by the announcement and we hope that his swimming continues to progress.
We would like to thank all the staff at the Mercat Gait Centre who were brilliant; the East District for providing technical officials and time-keepers and John Brodie for coordinating the entries and results. Most importantly, we would like to thank all the swimmers, parents and coaches for contributing so much to another successful swimming gala.
